Bonsall board hears proposed $14M budget

BONSALL - Suggested cuts in school bus routes and bus driver
positions prompted questions from Bonsall Union School District
trustees Tuesday, when the assistant superintendent introduced a
nearly $14 million proposed budget for the 2007-08 fiscal year.

The spending plan reflects anticipated expenses of $13,975,909
and expected revenue of $13,585,690. Final adoption of the budget
by the board is scheduled for June 28. The proposed budget will be
available for the public to view at the district's administrative
office, 31505 Old River Road in Bonsall.

Without the transportation cuts - including the elimination of
one route and three driver positions - plus a $125,000 donation
from the Pala Band of Mission Indians tribe, the projected
shortfall would be nearly 10 times as much, according to Assistant
Superintendent Wayne Jones, who is also the district's business
manager.

Jones has said previously that the deficit projection stems from
the raises the district promised to teachers and classified staff,
or district employees who are not teachers, including bus drivers,
cafeteria workers, clerks, mechanics, custodians and instructional
assistants.

Classified staffers will get a 12.37 percent raise this year,
per an agreement reached last fall. Bonsall's teachers will get a 4
percent raise, per a deal reached a few months ago. Teachers'
salaries are the largest expense the district has, followed by the
cost of employee benefits.

Trustee Tim Coen questioned whether the district should make the
transportation cuts, because the plan was to fund raises for
classified staff in the third year of the contract by making the
cuts then.

"If we make the cuts now, and spend the money now, we won't have
the money to spend as we said we would in year three," Coen said at
the meeting.

Trustee Richard Olson said the early cuts avoid spending the
money committed for classified staff raises in the future.

"What we're doing is cutting two years early to let people ease
into it," Olson said. "My understanding was that we were OK until
year three, and we'd have to look at cuts then."

Gail Lindstrom, president of California School Employees
Association Local 703, which represents bus drivers and other
nonteaching staffers, told the trustees she did not think the
suggested changes in the transportation department would work.

Also part of the budget is $698,795.45 the district set aside in
a reserve fund for unforeseen situations. But Jones has said the
district can use reserve fund money to address the shortfall. The
amount that would be placed in the reserve fund equals about 5
percent of the district's total operating funds. A district the
size of Bonsall Union is legally required to keep a reserve that
represents at least 3 percent of the district's total operating
funds.